Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Sharol and Tweety, you posted while I was writing. Glad the "orphans" are doing okay out there.
Tweety thanks for the information on the garden goodies. I think I will try to make the soup later today. I will cut into the melons but if they taste and smell anything like cantaloupe, they will go to the chickens. Just the odor of cantaloupe or any of those melons make me sick and to eat them is even worse. My ex husband used to love cantaloupe and I wouldn't let him even bring it in the house. So he would cut it up outside and put it in tupperware and store it in the fridge. Well he left all the seeds out by the garden and the next year we had the most expansive crop of beautiful cantaloupe anyone ever had. I gave away cantaloupe to tons of people and still had some left.
My friend has asked me to save him seeds from my orange tomatoes. He is very good about sharing his things. Last year he gave me a couple of winter melons. I made winter melon soup with pork and it was amazing. I also candied some winter melon but I wasn't impressed with it. It took a lot of work and just doesn't appeal to me.
Tweety I hope the dogs come back. I imagine having them shut in the garage is part of the problem. They are used to being out and roaming in a pasture and GPs don't confine well. The GP I just got keeps running out the gate when we open it. It has happened a few times more. If I have to stop and catch her and cage her each time we open the gate that isn't going to work. She has 20 acres to run on so I don't understand why running out the gate is so darned important. I think it is a pain to raise a pup but it sure is easier than re-adapting a dog to a new circumstance.

 

[22qZoo]

DANZ- I'm not real sure how basic-H works,the way I understand it is that it makes water wetter

,as in it makes water like a solvent so it penetrates surfaces better. Makes bugs drown,at least thats
how I remember it being explained (most of the time when people start talking science it sounds like Charlie Browns teacher wha,wha, wha,).The cedar oil was something I added to discourage any bugs that were still on their way. The 'toxic refrence was for the commercial fly sprays, I feel better letting DD use my homemade fly spray instead of the store baught ones that have pyrethrins,piperonyl butoxide,and permethrins in them. I don't use the cedar mix around the chickens tho,I think I heard cedar is bad for chickens?

 

[chicken danz]

Yeah cedar is toxic to chickens..and me! LOL
Okay that explains the name. The H would be for hydrogen. More hydrogen in a complex would make the water "wetter." Biology and chemistry was always kind of my thing. I did find a couple places I could order on line. Maybe if I do it now I'll remember to use it next year. I've been spending way too much money lately. We went to Topeka last night to meet my son and DIL and get our truck back they borrowed. Which of course meant a trip to Sam's to get groceries. $85 later I walked out. I didn't even buy half of what I would have liked.

On that subject, Let me brag for a moment. My son's Jeep broke down and had to go to the shop. He lives in Manhattan. Anyway once a year my two oldest sons get together with another friend and compete in a bar-b-q contest. My son is a certified barbecue contest judge so most of the time he judges instead of getting to compete. Anyway we took him the truck so he and his brother could compete in a contest together this weekend. It's been planned for a year. It was somewhere in the KC area. The boys did great. They entered all of the categories, including the ribs, loin, brisket, chicken, etc etc. They managed to place 2nd in almost every category and ended up as 2nd over all winners in the contest. They compete against professional teams that do this all year long and these guys only do this once a year. I'm really proud of them. I really like seeing my boys do things together too. Sure is different than when they were younger!

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Sharol and Tweety, you posted while I was writing. Glad the "orphans" are doing okay out there.
Tweety thanks for the information on the garden goodies. I think I will try to make the soup later today. I will cut into the melons but if they taste and smell anything like cantaloupe, they will go to the chickens. Just the odor of cantaloupe or any of those melons make me sick and to eat them is even worse. My ex husband used to love cantaloupe and I wouldn't let him even bring it in the house. So he would cut it up outside and put it in tupperware and store it in the fridge. Well he left all the seeds out by the garden and the next year we had the most expansive crop of beautiful cantaloupe anyone ever had. I gave away cantaloupe to tons of people and still had some left.
My friend has asked me to save him seeds from my orange tomatoes. He is very good about sharing his things. Last year he gave me a couple of winter melons. I made winter melon soup with pork and it was amazing. I also candied some winter melon but I wasn't impressed with it. It took a lot of work and just doesn't appeal to me.
Tweety I hope the dogs come back. I imagine having them shut in the garage is part of the problem. They are used to being out and roaming in a pasture and GPs don't confine well. The GP I just got keeps running out the gate when we open it. It has happened a few times more. If I have to stop and catch her and cage her each time we open the gate that isn't going to work. She has 20 acres to run on so I don't understand why running out the gate is so darned important. I think it is a pain to raise a pup but it sure is easier than re-adapting a dog to a new circumstance.

Danz, forgot to mention that if you use bones to cook the soup and squash, it tastes even better! I use a lot of soup bones to cook this type of soup.

The dogs had to be confined because they were never let out to work all their lives (so we were told). The plan was to confine them till they warm up to us before letting them out on leash to learn the boundaries. It is sad to lose them. I've contacted the town sheriff and animal shelter as well as the neighbors. I hope they will come back.

I love BBQ anything. I saw a show on TV a few times called "BBQ Pitmaster" or something like that and they sure know how to cook their meat! My mouth just waters when I see those meat falling off of those bones! I'm sure your sons are very excited to be doing so well in the competition. Hoot!

 

[chicken danz]

Well I can't imagine keeping the dogs penned up for life. I am wrong I guess. I sure hope they come back.
What kind of bones? I might have some beef or some chicken. I could always cook a chicken and use it for something else and use the broth.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, congrats on your son's success!

Tweety, so sorry about the dogs...

 

[Trish44]

tweety, I'm sorry, I think they're probably tired of being confined, I agree with Danz that GPs don't do well shut up they want to be out working. They were shut in that horrible horse trailer before you got them & then moved to a garage, so they just probably have had enough. I hope they come back or are close by. I know you were trying to get them used to you & your property first, but maybe they feel it's time to get out there & patrol.

I finished up on getting my breeder coop gates covered with wire today & tomorrow I'm going to get the wood for the side panel on my new pen. Then when I get that built & covered I can move my chicks in there & use their pen for the birds I plan to breed for the Cinnamon Queens next year. It's always musical pens around here it seems like.

 

[zigzag45]

I picked up two barred rocks and a cream legbar to replace the brahma I lost - was pretty excited to find them. Birds look really good to me and the place I got them from seemed well run with healthy birds (not good for me to see a bunch of other breeds, I decided I love how their bantam cochin's look, the Sweedish flower hens were pretty also).

What is the going recommendation on quarantine? This (https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock) says 30 days at a minimum. My new birds temp run will be in the same backyard the other birds have access to (planning to carve off an area using that orange plastic construction fencing) - so I wonder if I'm not defeating the whole quarantine thing anyways. I try to take good care of my birds, but 30 days sounds like alot of work.

 

[sharol]

I picked up two barred rocks and a cream legbar to replace the brahma I lost - was pretty excited to find them. Birds look really good to me and the place I got them from seemed well run with healthy birds (not good for me to see a bunch of other breeds, I decided I love how their bantam cochin's look, the Sweedish flower hens were pretty also).

What is the going recommendation on quarantine? This (https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock) says 30 days at a minimum. My new birds temp run will be in the same backyard the other birds have access to (planning to carve off an area using that orange plastic construction fencing) - so I wonder if I'm not defeating the whole quarantine thing anyways. I try to take good care of my birds, but 30 days sounds like alot of work.

 

[Trish44]

Yeah I agree sharol, if you don't know the people you got the birds from be on the safe side by keeping them confined longer. I usually do 2 weeks, but most of the time I get birds or chicks from people I know. It's bad enough when wild birds bring in diseases without bringing them in from someone's flock that you thought was healthy.